Protestant Ethic

Examples of Protestant Ethic in the following topics:

• Economic Sociology

  • Max Weber's book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is the archetypical representation of the works of economic sociology's classical period .
  • Published in 1905, Weber argues that capitalism flourished in northern Europe because of a preexisting religious ethic that encouraged dedication and hard work in the course of proving oneself worthy of salvation.
  • The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is representative of classical economic sociology in that it uses sociological data on religion to explain the economic phenomenon of northern Europe's embrace of capitalism.
  • This picture shows the cover to the 1934 edition of Max Weber's The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

• Protestant Work Ethic and Weber

  • In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, his most famous text, Weber proposed that ascetic Protestantism was one of the major "elective affinities" associated with the rise of capitalism, bureaucracy, and the rational-legal nation-state in the Western world.
  • Furthermore, in societies with different religions, the most successful business leaders tended to be Protestant.
  • To explain these observations, Weber argued that Protestantism, and especially the ascetic Protestant or Calvinist denominations, had redefined the connection between work and piety .
  • Furthermore, the Protestant ethic, while promoting the pursuit of economic gain, eschewed hedonistic pleasure.
  • Protestant believers thus reconciled, even encouraged, the pursuit of profit with religion.

• Introduction to Provisioning

  • Max Weber (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 1904-05) and Robert Tawney (Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, 1926) both hypothesize that the rise of the capitalist system was predicated on protestant beliefs.

• Ethical Barriers

  • Despite international trading laws and declarations, countries continue to face challenges around ethical trading and business practices.
  • Meetings of such bodies are often met with strong protests, as demonstrators attempt to bring attention to the often devastating effects of global capital on local conditions.
  • On November 30, 1999, close to fifty thousand people gathered to protest the WTO meetings in Seattle, Washington.
  • Demonstrations such as the mass protest at the 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle, highlight ethical questions on the effects of international trade on poor and developing nations.
  • Explain how and why groups place ethical barriers on international trade

• The Social Gospel

  • The Social Gospel movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the early twentieth century United States and Canada.
  • The movement applied Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as excessive wealth, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, bad hygiene, child labor, inadequate labor unions, poor schools, and the danger of war.
  • Besides these Protestants, Reform Jews and Catholics helped build Denver's social welfare system in the early twentieth century.
  • The Social Gospel affected much of Protestant America.

• Defining Ethics

  • Ethics are the set of moral principles that guide a person's behavior.
  • Ethics are the set of moral principles that guide a person's behavior.
  • The phrases business ethics and corporate ethics are often used to describe the application of ethical values to business activities.
  • Ethics applies to all aspects of conduct and is relevant to the actions of individuals, groups, and organizations.
  • In addition to individual ethics and corporate ethics there are professional ethics.

• Training Ethical Decision Making

  • Organizations use compliance and ethics programs to demonstrate and reinforce their commitment to ethical practices.
  • On a more practical level, a compliance and ethics program supports the organization's business objectives, identifies the boundaries of legal and ethical behavior, and establishes a system to alert management when the organization is getting close to (or crossing) a legal or ethical boundary.
  • Most ethics training focuses on clarifying and communicating an organization's ethical code so employees understand what is expected.
  • Some ethics training will also cover the resources available to help employees when they face an ethical dilemma or suspect that someone in the organization has made an ethical breach.
  • In every type of business, ethics are needed to keep business standards high.

• Moral Principles in Management

  • Business ethics deals with the beliefs and principles that guide management decisions.
  • Business ethics (also corporate or professional ethics) is a form of applied ethics that examines the principles and moral beliefs that guide management decisions.
  • This person ensures their organization has statements of ethical principals, clear guideline about acceptable and unacceptable practices, and means of reporting ethical breaches.
  • Availability for advice on ethical situations (i.e., advice lines or offices)
  • Good leaders strive to create a better and more ethical organization.

• A Brief Definition of Business Ethics

  • Business ethics is the written and unwritten principles and values that govern decisions and actions within companies.
  • Ethics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the meaning of all aspects of human behavior.
  • Theoretical ethics, sometimes called normative ethics, is about delineating right from wrong.
  • Business ethics, also called corporate ethics, is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines the ethical and moral principles and problems that arise in a business environment.
  • In the most basic terms, a definition for business ethics boils down to knowing the difference between right and wrong and choosing to do what is right.

• Promoting Ethical Behavior through the Planning Process

  • Building ethical considerations into a business strategy via the planning process is an important element of ethics management.
  • Ethical Training: Investing in training employees and managers in how integrate ethics into their process is a critical aspect of developing a strong ethical culture.
  • Situational Advice (Ethics Officers): Having ethics officers available for consultation is a great way to handle ethical issues as they arise internally.
  • Employees and managers may encounter ethical dilemmas that the Code of Ethics and ethics training don't address.
  • The ethics officer can also use these situations to improve the organization's ethical strategy.